When Women Invented Television

The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today

It was the Golden Age of Radio and powerful men were making millions in advertising dollars reaching thousands of listeners every day. When television arrived, few radio moguls were interested in the upstart industry. But four women saw an opportunity and carved their own paths, and in so doing invented the way we watch TV today.

Betty White became a daytime talk show fan favorite and one of the first women to produce, write, and star in her own show. Irna Phillips turned real-life tragedy into daytime serials featuring female dominated casts. Gertrude Berg turned her radio show into a Jewish family comedy that spawned a play, a musical, an advice column, a line of house dresses, and other products. Hazel Scott, already a renowned musician, was the first African American to host a national evening variety program.

But as the medium became more popular — and lucrative — in the wake of World War II, politics, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and money collided and the women who invented television found themselves fighting from the margins. But these women were true survivors who never gave up — and thus their legacies remain with us in our television-dominated era. This amazing and heartbreaking history, illustrated with photos, tells the little-known story of these trailblazing women, all for the first time.